Boat builders enjoy the fruits of their labor

By BRIDGET SMITH
Courier-Post Staff

Five Camden teens saw more than a month of hard work set sail on the Cooper River Saturday morning.

Three newly built wooden rowboats were launched into the river near the Cooper River Yacht Club, capping a six-week project for the boys, all members of Urban Promise Ministries, a faith-based organization in the city.

“Faith,” “Hope” and “Promise” were the three 12-foot-long vessels built by the teens, who all work in the organization’s Urban Trekkers program.

Surrounded by friends and family on a sunny summer morning, four of the teens — Richard Gaines Jr., Hassan Jackson, Isaiah Morgan and Clarence Porter — loaded their boats into the water, climbed in, and successfully pushed off the dock near the Yacht Club. A fifth teen, Shakeem Cook, could not attend the celebration.

After some initial hesitation while they got the feel for rowing, the teens settled in quickly and spent nearly two hours on the water, giving rides to parents, friends, photographers — whoever wanted to jump in.

Gaines, 16, said it was “incredibly rewarding” to see the boats take shape and, ultimately, do what they were designed to do.

He worked on two of the vessels, and said it took a lot of manual labor, including cutting, measuring and sanding.

“Our motto was, measure twice, and cut once,” he said. “It was crazy.”

And while he said it was sometimes difficult to want to spend hours working on the boats — especially on days when the teens were busy helping to run Urban Promise’s summer camps — the end result made it more than worthwhile.

“They look way better than I thought they would,” he said.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished something in my life.”

Elaine Hawkins, 41, laughed as her son, 14-year-old Clarence Porter, took her out for a quick spin in the boat he helped build.

“I think it’s pretty awesome that he got to do this,” she said. “He’d never done anything like this before.”

The boat-building project began about a month and a half ago, said Jim Cummings, director of Urban Trekkers. The teens met 10 times a week.

Cummings said it was an opportunity for the boys to work together, stay busy, and apply some of the things they’ve learned in school through the years.

“One of these guys gave me the best quote,” Cummings said. “He said, “I guess this is why we need to know math.’”

Each vessel started as four pieces of plywood that were measured, cut down and eventually “sewn” together using nylon ties. A coat of a special glue was applied, and the nylon ties were eventually removed. The boys painted each vessel and chose names for them.

The red boat is “Promise,” named for the organization. “Faith” and “Hope” are blue and green, respectively, named for programs within Urban Promise’s youth summer camps.

Cummings has already sold “Promise” for about $2,500. He hopes to auction off the other two and use the funds for a similar project during the next school year.

Cummings said he hoped the boat-building experience would help the teens build character and confidence, as well.

“They could’ve built anything this summer, but there’s just something cool about having these kids build boats,” he said. “There’s symbolism with a boat. It can take you to places you’ve never been before.”

Reach Bridget Smith at (856) 486-2473 or brksmith@camden.gannett.com

Camden charter schools see record enrollment

By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS
Courier-Post Staff

The number of parents enrolling students in charter schools within Camden nearly has quadrupled in the last decade, siphoning more than $35 million from the city schools next year alone.

A projected 2,763 kindergarten through 12th-grade students will enroll in one of the city’s seven charter schools next year, according to state Department of Education statistics. Just a decade ago, the total charter school population was 743 in two schools, LEAP Academy University and Camden’s Promise.

Since 2001, five charter schools have opened in the city, each growing in size almost every year. The state received an application last month to create an eighth facility. All the while, the Camden City School enrollment — at one time more than 20,000 students — next year will dwindle to 11,500, not including pre-school children.

Officials in the most popular charter schools characterize this enrollment explosion as a sign that parents have been dissatisfied with the traditional public system. However, Camden City School Board President Sara Davis said the charter schools are not performing better than the city’s programs and are stealing money from the district.

Camden City School Board members focused a spotlight on charter schools this month after they were ordered by the state to send an additional $4 million to charter schools, a nearly 12 percent jump in one year. This comes at a time when the district’s state funding decreased by more than $5 million and 90 jobs are to be lost.

“It’s no secret I’m no supporter of charter schools. I haven’t been able to see where they’ve done any better than the public schools,” Davis said. “There has been an increase in achievement in children in the city’s public schools. I just don’t understand how we receive a reduction in aid on one hand and increase the aid to charter schools on the other hand.”

Competition between the public schools and charters was minimal during boom times in the economy because both sides had enough money and demand, officials said. But the national recession has exacerbated the tension in an already tenuous cooperation and the city could see more intense recruitment efforts.

Heather Ngoma, director of the Charter School Resource Center at Rutgers University said Davis can’t assume the students are the district’s anymore.

“They’re not seeing their money slip out. They’re seeing their children leave and seeing their families choose charter schools,” Ngoma said.

Misconceptions about charter schools are prevalent, said Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, LEAP Academy University founder and board president.

Charter schools are public schools open to all students. They are not allowed to “cream” for the best students. Students apply by a lottery and they must abide by the same rules, take the same tests and report the same issues as a public school. The main difference is the charter school has its own board members and administration. However, its money comes through the local school district from the state and local taxpayers.

Across New Jersey, 62 charter schools enroll more than 17,000 students. In all, the state provided $247.9 million in state aid to these facilities. Another six are slated to come online in September. Newark has the most charter schools, with 10.

Each charter school has to apply to the state and be reviewed for renewal every five years based on regulations approved by the Charter School Program Act of 1995.

The first charter school in Camden was the LEAP Academy in 1997. The school has expanded every year by adding grade levels and a high school facility. It was followed a year later by Camden’s Promise.

“It’s definitely fair to say the charter schools are attracting students of parents who are dissatisfied with performance in the district and others flock to charter schools because of a safety factor,” Ngoma said. “Others are just attracted because of their unique missions. There could be an environment goal or a performance arts focus. Parents want to see their kids in those environments.”

According to state education officials, Camden is the only place in the tri-county area where charter schools exist.

Part of the reason also may be funding. By regulation, the money to educate a child follows the student, but only 90 percent of it reaches the charter school. The home district may keep 10 percent, or in Camden officials said they take 15 percent to run busing and other administrative services. Charter school officials call this “a 15 percent bonus” to the city schools every time the charters take another child.

Nationwide, New Jersey offers charter schools more money per child than any other state, just over $12,500, according to The Center for Education Reforms, a Washington, D.C.-based pro-charter organization.

Innovative model

President Barack Obama called on the innovative charter model as one of his key components for reforming the nation’s education system during a speech in March. He asked states to relax limits and barriers to charter school creation and success.

Some of the components include longer school days, more parental involvement, social services and a different attitude about student expectations.

Most of Camden’s charter schools have longer school days and attend school more days of the year, 186 compared to 180, for example.

At LEAP, days extend until 4 p.m. At Distinctions in Urban Education, better known as DUE Season Charter School, all 11th-grade students will have additional test preparation every other Saturday from October until March, said school founder and Chief Education Officer Doris Carpenter. Saturday classes are regular at other schools, too, including Freedom Academy Charter School.

Parental involvement, by law, cannot be required, but Bonilla-Santiago candidly said parents are encouraged strongly to volunteer hours at the school and take a more active role in their child’s academic career. One way to get parents into the school is to offer something more, including access to full-service health clinics and other social needs, said Bonilla-Santiago, adding the school has a partnership with Cooper Hospital.

All of the charters profess a different attitude and approach to teaching than the public schools, and setting the right expectations.

What parents like about Carpenter’s school and other charters is their reputation for security. Her school occupies portions of the third, fourth and fifth floors of Virtua’s Health Center in the city, where students and parents must pass hospital security and school security before they reach a child.

“If you asked our parents about what appeals to them most, it’s the safety issue for the kids,” said Carpenter, who served as a Camden City school principal from 1976 to 1996. “There is a better way.”

Standardized testing

The city’s two largest charter schools, LEAP and DUE Season, said testing is important, but they stress there is more to learning than test results.

“Success cannot be measured by test scores. We have to be measured by the outcomes. These are the results of many things we are producing here. You look at the results,” Bonilla-Santiago said.

LEAP has been able to place its graduates over the past four years in colleges and 9 of 10 of those students are still in college today. At DUE Season, students receive more of a creative focus from teachers with artistic, dancing and creative writing backgrounds.

Students at LEAP and DUE Season are two of the lower test performers when compared to their local charter counterparts. Still, they outperform most Camden City schools in several test areas, according to a random selection of the most recent results from the NJ ASK and HSPA testing for grades 3, 5, 8 and 11.

In grade 8 language arts and math testing, the best city school results were at Bonsall and Coopers Poynt with 49.2 and 36.5 percent of its students scoring at or above proficiency.

Charter school students usually tested better. Camden’s Promise earned the top overall scores, with 86.4 and 63.2 percent testing at or above proficiency, and it accomplished these scores with a higher student population than Bonsall and Coopers Poynt. LEAP Academy produced the lowest charter school performance, but even its scores of 47.3 in language arts and 28.8 in math nearly match the best results in the city.

City perks

City schools spokesman Bart Leff said the charter school success is overblown because Camden’s public schools are making improvements every year.

“I think the charter schools believe that they are offering an advanced curriculum and smaller class sizes and specialized instruction. That’s what they believe they’re doing. However, in our elementary, middle and high schools, you’ll find essentially the same curriculum with the same class size and the same specialized instruction,” Leff said. “The reality is the charter schools over the years have not made any more progress that we have.”

He added that Camden City’s schools offer more advanced placement, after-school curricular and sports team opportunities than charter schools. Because of the smaller size of the charter schools, they often don’t have enough demand for certain sports teams or specialized classes, but they still can play within the city.

For example, a student at LEAP Academy who wants to play football must play with one of the comprehensive high schools. LEAP does have its own basketball team. Students such as Robert Ransom, 17, a senior, conceded he can’t rally school spirit behind athletics. But there are plenty of other groups and associations bringing pride to the school and there is plenty of parent involvement.

Leff wouldn’t speak to the safety comparison between the city and charter schools, saying he does not know how the charters report their data. He added, however, that Camden gets a bad reputation.

“I know that our schools, to date, have had a pretty good track record for safety and security,” Leff said. “We rarely see evidence of extreme negative behavior. When we do, we act on it.”

While the number of families choosing charter schools continue to rise, he said the city is likely to pull them back as more modern schools come online.

The state has two new elementary schools — H.B. Wilson and Dudley — opening this September and more schools have been promised by 2012, including a new Camden High School, Lanning Square Elementary and Morgan Village Middle School.

“We’re opening up new schools. With the advent of new educational facilities, we believe a percentage of those children in the charters will come back to us,” Leff said.

Reach Joseph Gidjunis at (856) 486-2604 or jgidjunis@gannett.com

Training class helps people find green jobs

By DEBORAH HIRSCH
Courier-Post Staff

State and local officials today will recognize 16 tri-county residents for completing a “green jobs” training program in Camden.

The 12-week training program launched in April as part of Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s Energy Master Plan, which calls for $1 billion of public and private investment into energy efficiency and renewable energy.

With a $300,000 grant from the Conserve to Preserve Foundation of the New Jersey Resources Corp. and about $1.7 million from the N.J. Department of Labor and Workforce Development, state officials hired staff to develop the curriculum and train workers at sites in Camden, Trenton, Newark and Somerset.

More than 300 workers are expected to graduate from the four centers over the course of a year.

Locally, the Green Jobs Training was held at the Camden-based Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey.

Coordinator Megan Barbano-Maxwell worked with county employment centers to recruit interested job candidates. Every weekday morning, certified energy auditors and analysts taught the students how to test a home for energy-efficiency, air-seal buildings, inspect weatherization and install insulation. Students also learned basic thermodynamics.

In addition, the students also went over life and job skills to help them become well-rounded job candidates, Barbano-Maxwell said. They attended workshops on financial management, computers, nutrition, environmental awareness, job safety and labor unions. During their last week of training, they went into homes to test out their newly acquired technical skills as assistant building analysts and air sealers.

Now that they’ve completed the training, the center will work with local heating/air conditioning companies, builders, public utilities and developers to place them into paid internships. The state will commit additional money to reimburse the employers up to half of a minimum $15 hourly wage during their three- to six-month internship.

Once those internships end, Barbano-Maxwell said, the hope is that the companies will hire their interns as regular staff members. If not, she said, the center will work with them to find another job.

The center has already contacted 13 companies and Barbano-Maxwell said she believed more jobs would become available as government officials continue funding environmental projects through economic recovery efforts. Already, she said, many companies are looking to hire energy auditors as a result of various tax credits and incentives encouraging homeowners to become more energy-efficient.

Barbano-Maxwell said the green jobs training program not only supports those who are unemployed or underemployed, but the work that they do will also benefit the community.

“We have so many people struggling right now to keep their homes and stay in their homes,” she said. With energy updates, these homeowners can save money by reducing their energy bills and contribute to improving the environment at the same time, she said.

Swedesboro resident John Coyle, 35, said he plans to study for the test to become a certified home-energy auditor now that he’s finished the training program.

“Green jobs, that’s where we’re going as a country,” Coyle said. “There’s always going to be something here.”

The center begins training a group of 20 people on July 6. A third and final session will start in September.

Reach Deborah Hirsch at (856) 486-2476 or dhirsch@camden.gannett.com

Additional Facts MORE INFORMATION

Those interested in participating in the ‘green jobs’ training program must:

Be at least 20 years old.

Score at the seventh-grade level or higher on the Test of Adult Basic Education.

Pass a drug test and possess a high school diploma or GED and a driver’s license.

For more information, contact Megan Barbano-Maxwell at (856) 964-4692.

Rutgers–Camden Scholars Reach Out to Communities, Young People with Help from Johnson & Johnson

With generous funding from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, two professors with the Center for Children and Childhood Studies at Rutgers–Camden are working to strengthen communities and the lives of youths in the city.  Bill Whitlow, a professor of psychology, is working with the Camden Area Health Education Center to help residents address issues involving air and water quality in their neighborhood.  Dan Hart, director of the Center for Children and Childhood Studies and a professor of psychology, is working with two Camden groups to address youth development and health care.

source: http://rujnjpartnership.rutgers.edu/index.shtml#item1

AmeriCorps workers pitch in to help Camden

By DEBORAH HIRSCH
Courier-Post Staff

Two AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps workers wrestled with a battery-drained drill as they attempted to fix a railing at the Children’s Garden in downtown Camden earlier this week.

Behind them, another group of young men and women prepared to install a stone pathway in front of a gazebo.

Camden residents will see many more people wearing the organization’s signature green and white polo shirts before the end of the year. At any given time, up to 20 AmeriCorps members will start community gardens, read to schoolchildren, plant trees and renovate buildings around the city.

The program isn’t new to the city. National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) teams came to Camden in 2003 and 2004 to help Rutgers University with a health program. But the city never had so many teams until last year.

At that time, the NCCC had designated Camden as one of a handful of priority cities. A former AmeriCorps representative happened to read about the Children’s Garden in an article about the Philadelphia Flower Show and encouraged her agency to call them.

The city might have missed out on hundreds of hours of manpower if that exchange never happened, said Children’s Garden Director Mike Devlin, who also heads the Camden City Garden Club.

“These folks come in and they’ve got lots of energy and enthusiasm,” Devlin said. “They see things from a fresh perspective. For those of us who are here day in, day out in Camden, it’s just really refreshing.”

Last spring, the teams stayed in a camp in Williamstown and commuted to Camden to clean up parks, survey trees for the NJ Tree Foundation and convert a Waterfront South church into the Camden Shipyard and Maritime Museum.

If not for their hard work, the museum would be way behind schedule because there was no money to pay for labor, said director Michael Lang, a former urban studies professor at Rutgers.

“To see what they’ve done, it really just takes my breath away,” he said.

This year, the first NCCC teams arrived in March. Devlin and his wife, Valerie Frick, house one group at a home in Fairview. Another stays in a former rectory at the Maritime Museum.

Much of their time is devoted to fixing up the Children’s Garden and plotting community gardens. The Garden also loans them out to other nonprofit groups. They’ve helped with everything from landscaping at the Boys and Girls Club to painting at a Volunteers of America building used for supportive housing.

The members also find projects on their own to complete independent service hours.

“This is my college course in life,” said Joareyn Hill, 21, a team leader from Menominee Falls, Wis.

Although NCCC members provide free labor to Camden organizations, they’re not technically volunteers. They receive health insurance and housing through AmeriCorps as well as a nominal biweekly stipend.

The teams spend six to eight weeks in one city before rotating to another. After completing the 10-month program, they receive $4,725 for education.

“It’s something productive, giving back while figuring out what to do next,” in life, said Noel DiDomenico, 23, of Danbury, Conn.

For former AmeriCorps team leader Jesse Loubet, 25, the program was a chance to try something “uncharted” after realizing that cooking in a restaurant wasn’t what he wanted to do with his culinary arts degree.

The Northeast Pennsylvania native made an impression during his rotation at the Children’s Garden last year. When the organization received a grant to expand community gardening in Camden, Devlin hired Loubet to coordinate the effort.

So far this year, he and AmeriCorps workers have helped start 26 community gardens.Loubet also writes about healthy eating for the garden club newsletter.

“I didn’t even know how to garden until I got here,” he said, grinning.

Even though the members only spend a short time in the city, Devlin said the work they do makes an impact. On Friday, he honored AmeriCorps with one of the garden’s annual “Champion of Children” Awards. Americorps has also recognized Devlin’s organization for its dedication to the program, last year naming the garden the sponsor of the year.

Reach Deborah Hirsch at (856) 486-2476 or dhirsch@camden.gannett.com

Additional Facts MORE INFORMATION

Children’s Garden staff members are looking for nonprofit and government agencies in Camden that could use help from AmeriCorps members this summer. Contact (856) 365-8733. For more information about the AmeriCorps programs, including the National Civilian Community Corps, go to www.americorps. gov.

Golf tourney set to benefit Camden grads

By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS
Courier-Post Staff

The nonprofit arm of the Camden school district is looking for participants and sponsors for the fourth annual golf tournament fundraiser, which provides scholarships for college-bound seniors.

The Camden Board of Education Foundation has expanded its financial goal to $62,500, an increase of $12,500 and five students, over last year’s goals. The increase allows the foundation to compensate for an additional five scholarships for students from Camden’s fifth high school, MetEast, which is graduating its first class of seniors on June 26.

The remaining scholarships are divided evenly over the other four high schools.

“We want to give these kids a financial hand up to go to college,” said Jack Tarditi, president of the foundation. “It’s integral in helping these 25 kids pay for their first year of college.”

Registration for the golf tournament fundraiser begins at 11 a.m. June 24 at the Pennsauken Country Club, on Haddonfield Road.

In addition to college scholarships, the money raised will benefit other cultural activities the school district can’t pay for on its own, said School District spokesman Bart Leff. In the past year, the foundation provided significant funding for the Camden High School Marching Band to compete in Inauguration weekend festivities.

The foundation has also helped refurbish high school football stadium field houses, travel expenses for special groups to see a Guatemalan rain forest, and a trip for a choral competition in Verona, Italy, Leff said.

The golf tournament is expecting former Philadelphia sports icons Bernie Parent, of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Jon Runyan and Irving Fryar, of the Philadelphia Eagles, as honorary chairmen. The Philadelphia Phanatic should also make an appearance, Leff said. There is also a silent auction and award banquet for the students and families.

Sponsorship begins at $250 for an individual, or $2,000 for a team of four. Top level sponsorship extends to $10,000 or $20,000. The overall fundraising goal is $80,000, Leff said.

“We would like to raise as much as possible,” Leff said. “Our game plan is to create an endowment for these activities.”

Tarditi said that he recognizes the hit on families and corporations, but added that he expects that Camden’s loyal community won’t let the children down.

Reach Joseph Gidjunis at (856) 486-2604 or jgidjunis@gannett.com

Additional Facts IF YOU GO

The Camden Board of Education Foundation’s fourth annual golf tournament fundraiser to provide scholarships for college-bound seniors will be at 11 a.m. June 24. The tournament will be at the Pennsauken Country Club on Haddonfield Road. For more information, call Bart Leff at (856) 966-2649 or Jack Tarditi (856) 552-4792.

Vacant city lots transform into family-tended gardens

Less than a year ago, 9-year-old Alex Checo came home from a school field trip clutching a small tomato plant.

“He was so excited,” said his mother Martha Checo. “He said “Mom, let’s go. We have to plant it.’ “

Checo didn’t share her son’s excitement.

“At my house, we don’t have the space to grow a garden,” she said.

She did it anyway, setting the plant down in the small patch of dirt at their Cramer Hill home.

“We had so many tomatoes, if you came in and took a couple, we wouldn’t even notice,” said Alex, a student at the St. Anthony of Padua School.

Although the family’s garden is still small, they now have room to grow as many vegetables as they would like.

The Checos were among the first families to sign up for their own plot at a new community garden in a city-owned lot on the corner of 29th Street and River Road, across from Von Neida Park.

“We’re going to have more throughout the city,” said City Council President Angel Fuentes during Saturday’s groundbreaking ceremony. “This is just the beginning.”

The garden, one of about 20 sprinkled throughout the city, is the result of a partnership between the city, a group of local churches and the Camden Children’s Garden.

About half of the community gardens in Camden are on city-owned properties, said Children’s Garden Director Mike Devlin. The other half belongs to faith-based organizations, he said.

“This is a good partnership with the churches,” Fuentes said. “Imagine if each church could select an empty lot near them and beautify it. I think it would make a huge difference in the city.”

The lot in Cramer Hill is among the 5,000 to 10,000 abandoned properties in Camden.

For the past five years, the lot was a neighborhood blight.

Trailers that served as a police substation from 1994 to 2002 still sat there, abandoned.

“We put up the trailers and within a couple of days, folks came here and firebombed it,” Fuentes said, blaming the damage on drug dealers who sold their wares on the corner of 28th and Heyes streets. When the city restructured its police department the trailers were no longer needed.

Tired of seeing the abandoned structures, four Cramer Hill churches belonging to a group called Camden Churches Organized for People decided to do something about it.

“We got together with the Children’s Garden and asked: “What can we do with this site?’ ” said Mandi Aviles, director of youth ministries at St. Anthony.

With the help of a group from Volunteers of America, the staff at the Children’s Garden prepared the first nine plots to be planted then used part of a $250,000 Robert Wood Johnson grant to supply seeds and plants. Those who participate in the program have to sign an agreement with St. Anthony and the Cramer Hill community garden committee to take care of the land.

“The first step is to get the gardens going,” Devlin said.

On Saturday, volunteers were busy planting the more than 500 plants and seeds bought with grant money.

With a little help getting started, neighbors usually stick with it, Devlin said.

“Gardening is popular in every culture,” Devlin said. “It’s as popular in Haddonfield as it is in Camden.”

And the demand is growing.

There are more community gardens popping up this year than any other previous year, Devlin said.

So many, in fact, that Camden County ran out of the wood chips it has provided free of change for many years. The wood chips are used to divide the plots.

“We used them all up,” Devlin said.

Membership in the Children’s Garden club has climbed to include more than 70 families and 30 nonprofits. For their $25 to $60 annual dues, members have access to free plants, seeds, fertilizers, fencing and other planting materials.

The National Gardening Association estimates that 9 million more households will be gardening this year, a 19 percent increase from last year.

For the residents planting the gardens, the benefits outweigh the amount of produce they can harvest.

“I think it’s going to restore a lot of the hope that was lost here,” Aviles said. “We see so much negative that we forget that there are things that we can do that are positive if we just get together and do them.” Reach Lavinia DeCastro at (856) 486-2652 or ldecastro@courierpostonline.com

EPA to provide funds for Camden

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it will provide $400,000 to assess brownfields sites.

The funds will support work at 14 sites along the Interstate 676 and Federal Street corridors, the federal agency said.

The effort will target properties that are polluted with hazardous substances and petroleum waste, the federal agency said.

The federal funds are going to the Camden Redevelopment Agency.

Courier-Post staff

Revitalization plan warmly received in Cramer Hill

Five years ago, dozens of Cramer Hill residents marched to City Hall, outraged by a $1.2 billion redevelopment plan that would have forced the relocation of more than a thousand families to make way for new homes, retail space, a golf course and a marina.

The 2003 plan became defunct three years later when a judge ruled that the city had made procedural errors during the approval process. But distrust and resentment lingered over what had almost happened.

Now, community leaders have come back with a new plan to revitalize the Cramer Hill neighborhood — without eminent domain.

State officials, city leaders and residents gathered Monday in Von Neida Park to celebrate the unveiling of the nearly 200-page document. The “Cramer Hill Now!” plan calls for a cleaner and safer community, street improvements, more than 375,000 square feet of commercial development, 3,053 residential units and a multifaceted waterfront park over the next two decades. All this is expected to create thousands of jobs and generate more than $9 million in annual tax revenues.

So far, nobody has staged a protest. Nobody has plastered stickers warning developers to stay away, like they did after the Cherokee Investment Partners plan. Nobody had anything but good things to say on Monday.

Community leaders said that’s because residents were involved in the planning process. Since last September, more than 500 residents gave the nonprofit Cramer Hill Community Development Corp. input about the changes they wanted to see in their neighborhood.

“This is something that came up in every meeting, that we need to address the concerns of residents in the neighborhood now,” said executive director Manny Delgado.

A committee of residents, city officials, the Camden Redevelopment Agency and business owners sorted through feedback from the various community meetings. Professional planning consultants, hired with an $85,000 Wachovia Regional Foundation planning grant and $50,000 state grant, analyzed demographics, past development plans and resident surveys.

The ambitious plan they drafted includes improvements to existing businesses, demolition of 57 abandoned homes, mixed-income development, better street lighting, a public library and more home improvement grants.

It also recommends initiatives to improve quality of life such as installing public trash cans, painting murals, taking charge of vacant lots and organizing street clean-up brigades.

An accompanying waterfront study led by the Cooper’s Ferry Development Association calls for parks, sports fields, picnic areas, greenway trails and conservation space along the 2.5 miles of waterfront that outline the neighborhood from the Cooper River to the Delaware River Back Channel. As with the Cherokee plan, there would be a marina and golf, only mini-golf instead of an 18-hole course.

Officials said they’ll use the plan as a tool to get the funding they need to turn their dreams into reality.

“It’s a huge competitive edge for development opportunities,” said Sandy Johnston, director of the Camden Redevelopment Agency.

A few components of the plan are already in the works. The N.J. Department of Environmental Protection is cleaning up a former landfill site on Harrison Avenue that will eventually become a 120,000 square-foot Salvation Army community center. Work to ease flooding issues at Von Neida Park will begin next spring with $1.4 million in grants, Delgado said. His organization also continues to seek grants to build infill homes.

City Council President Angel Fuentes, also a Cramer Hill resident, said he expects council to adopt the “Cramer Hill Now!” plan this summer in conjunction with the city’s official redevelopment plan for the neighborhood, which was started in 2006 but stalled until last year.

“We’ve learned a good lesson: We have to consider people are first,” said Mayor Gwendolyn Faison. “Be encouraged, Cramer Hill. We might have messed up, but you know what, we don’t go away mad. I believe this is going to be the most envious section of the town because there’s so many possibilities.”

Reach Deborah Hirsch at (856) 486-2476 or dhirsch@camden.gannett.com

Program helps integrate military veterans into college life

Bryan Adams entered Rutgers-Camden in fall 2007 with a Purple Heart. A sniper ambush during Operation Iraqi Freedom left Adams with gunshot scars on his hand and leg.

Due to the advocacy of Veterans For Education and a prospective increase in coming years of veteran students, the University has taken up initiatives to accommodate and support veterans.

Adams, a Camden School of Arts and Sciences first-year student, is one of 396 University students receiving veterans’ benefits.

Another is School of Arts and Sciences junior Jose Rodriguez, who served with a marine expeditionary unit carrying out humanitarian missions in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and other Asian countries from 2001 to 2005. Rodriguez continued doing reserve work until January 2008.

“Once you join the military you experience and see other things that you wouldn’t normally see if you weren’t part of it, and that can possibly change your view on issues,” Rodrigurez said.

Adams had difficulty adjusting to life as a civilian and relating to other students at the start of his first year of college.

“I didn’t want to talk to anybody,” Adams said. “I was on campus walking around and people would be crying about their Starbucks or whatever, complaining about nothing. I was just like, ‘Man you have no idea.’ Compared to Iraq, college is nothing.”

In spring 2008, Adams joined Veterans For Education, a non-partisan organization at Rutgers-Camden dedicated to promoting a positive image of veterans and the value of education. He is now president of the organization.

During the question and answer period of President Richard L. McCormick’s September 2008 annual address, Adams stated he would like to see increased support and advocacy for veterans. The University Committee on Veterans’ Services met for the first time six days later.

Vice President for Student Affairs Gregory S. Blimling, chairperson for the council, said the University is obliged to address the needs of men and women who serve their country.

“We are mobilizing the resources that we have, we are pulling together the people that we believe can be of assistance and we are trying to provide the best programs and services that we possibly can to the men and women who have so honorably served in our armed forces,” Blimling said.   

The Report of the Committee of Veterans’ Services states the University is likely to see an increase in the number of students who have served in active duty because the post Sept. 11 G.I. Bill provides educational benefits to a large number of men and women who were called to active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senator Jim Webb, D-Virginia, introduced the Post Sept. 11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007 in Jan. 2007. The legislation became law in June 2008 and goes into effect Aug. 1, 2009.

Undergraduate registrar Robert Whitman said he thinks the new G.I. Bill and the return of 2,900 members of the New Jersey National Guard from service in Iraq will lead to an increase in veterans on campus in coming years.

Assistant Dean Betza Feliciano-Berrios said an increase in 2010 is more likely than one in 2009 because of the structure of admission cycles. With this expected surge on the horizon, Veterans For Education continued fighting for measures for veterans.

Faculty of Rutgers-Camden voted April 2 to apply for the Servicemembers Opportunity College Consortium, a move that Veterans For Education had campaigned for.

The consortium allows veterans who took technical courses during advanced military training to submit their credits to the University for consideration toward their undergraduate degree, Adams said.

Blimling said Rutgers-New Brunswick joining the consortium is not on the agenda and Camden would be the portal program for the University.

“Any veteran who wants to transfer credits from [Servicemembers Opportunity College Consortium] schools can matriculate at University College-Camden as long as they are accepted for admission and then they can take courses at any of our campuses. They could in fact take courses here in New Brunswick or in Newark as what is called a visiting student and the degree would be offered by University College-Camden,” Blimling said.

The University is also considering joining the Yellow Ribbon Program offered through the Veterans Administration, Blimling said. The program would minimize out-of-state tuition costs for veterans.

Under the program, half of a veteran’s out-of-state deferential would be paid by the federal government and the other half would be waived or essentially paid for by the University, he said.

The University will be actively recruiting veterans by setting up academic programs on military bases in New Jersey, and will continue to devise new ways to aid and accommodate veterans, Blimling said.

One new way the University aims to aid veterans is through the volunteer veteran mentoring program, Feliciano-Berrios said. The program is a combination of Peer-to-Peer and Student-to-Practicing Professional programs designed to benefit veterans.

“Veteran students will not only be assigned a mentor, but will have a mentor who is well aware of military life, the Rutgers life and is willing to reach out to the student instead of the other way around,” Feliciano-Berrios said. “We see this program as a way to welcome our veterans and provide them additional support outside of the already existing administrative and academic support.”

Carl Burns, a University alumnus and Vietnam veteran, will be volunteering as a mentor.

“We’re going to be there to provide advice and direction to veteran students,” Burns said. “We will provide a network to help each and every one of them reach their goals of being a successful student and graduating.”
Adams reflected on the changes Veterans For Education has spurred and the shift he has seen in the University’s attitude.

“I think they realize the value of veterans and what they can bring to campus,” Adams said. “They’re starting to understand that we can make this campus better … I’m really enjoying Rutgers. I’m proud to be a student.”

Greg Flynn, Correspondent